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Guests, goodies & giant cupcake = 1st B-day fun

Posted on May 15, 2008 10:24 pm by TheAngelForever

It is still hard to believe that JSL is one already. Last year at this time I was threatening to leave the hospital after a really horrible night. Now I am home with all three of my boys and my baby is getting so big. Last Sunday (yes on Mother’s Day) we had JSL’s first birthday party at my parent’s house.

Saturday night JL and I baked the giant cupcake and twelve other cupcakes with the left over batter. We were up until almost 1:00 in the morning waiting for them to go into the freezer. In the morning we packed up the boys and went to my parents house. I quickly got everything out and started to frost the little cupcakes and decorate the big one. Thanks to my handy dandy decorating tool it came out really great and did not take too long in the scheme of things.

Once the cake was done it was time to work with my mother and Aunt M (my sister-in-law) to get the food baked and ready to go. We served an egg bake with scallions, baked peach french toast, bagels, lox, cream cheese, vegetarian liver (Mimi’s specialty), hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and potato kuggel (Mimi’s again). I could not have had such amazing things if my mother and grandmother (Mimi) had not helped with the menu and Aunt M had not helped with everything on Sunday – thank you all!

While the preparations were being done in the kitchen the kids were busy playing. NHL, JSL and Cousin S were enjoying time with my brother, Papa and JL. Play time!

An attempt was also made to get a photo of the three grandkids together. This did not work out too well. Apparently this was the best that was captured.

Everyone started to arrive at 11:00. While the food finished baking people talked and watched the kids play. JSL had an interesting time with my parent’s massager. All I can say is – he is a total BOY!

All of the kids ate in the kitchen. It was too funny watching them interact with each other.

After brunch the kids went to play and we put the left over food away. Then it was time to set up all of the good stuff on the table for round two of food. It was finally time to put the giant cupcake on the table!

Everyone came to the dining room so we could light the candle, sing Happy Birthday to JSL and have him attempt to blow out the candle. He was quite serious at one point with everyone standing around watching him.

Time to blow out the candle

While I was busy cutting pieces of giant cupcake for everyone JSL was in the kitchen digging in. JL said that he was quite careful at first. After a little while he figured out that he could get more into his hands and stuff that into his mouth faster. Be glad that you did not have to clean up the little guy and/or his booster seat. NHL was amused with his brother’s mess and declared that JSL looked like Grandpa thanks to his white frosting beard.

Once JSL was cleaned up (read – the best that could be done without a tub) it was time to open presents. This was something pretty new for him. Sure he had a few items at Chanukah time, but he was so little in December. NHL was quite eager to help his little brother dig into the gifts. JSL did not understand why he could not play with his first gift and started to have a mini temper tantrum when we tried to hand him a new package. He did not want that and wanted to play with his new toy.

Of course the real fun came soon after this when all five of the kids started to romp in the wrapping paper. Oh wait, some adults also got into the mix. Check it out. . .

Wrapping paper fun

Being the birthday boy was hard work. The little guy had to stop at one point to chug some water from his sippy cup since he was so thirsty.

It was a very nice day. Seeing all of our family members, eating good food was nice but soon it was time for everyone to leave. Uncle I and Aunt M had a big trip ahead of them. Cousin S was all ready to go after hugging everyone goodbye.

All ready to head home

Before we knew it everyone was gone. It was time to clean up, pack up and go home. JSL did not nap all day and quickly had a bath, ate an early dinner and went to sleep dreaming of giant cupcakes.

Now we can sit back for a few weeks until we start to plan NHL’s 5th birthday party for August. He has ideas, but we shall see what we agree to.

Categories:
birthday family food glorious food fun jsl milestone photos weekend yummy

Official 1st B-day Giant Cupcake

Posted on May 12, 2008 12:13 pm by TheAngelForever

Things have been quite busy here this weekend. My brother and his family were in town and yesterday was JSL’s 1st Birthday party.

We were out and about all day Saturday. Photos coming soon of everyone at the little amusement park (JSL had his first rides). Thanks to being out so late, JL helped me to stay awake long enough to bake the giant cupcake. Here is where the test runs paid off. We knew exactly what we had to do and were able to get it done quickly. Still even with the organized plan, we were still up until almost 1:00 in the morning waiting for the giant cupcake to be ready to put in the freezer.

The giant cupcake stayed in our freezer over night. Sunday morning I took it out for 10 minutes so I could quickly carve it to put together for the trip to my parents house. Once I got there (9:00 for a 11:00 party) I started to decorate it.

Here is a sneak peak of the finished cake:

And a tease of JSL eating the cake and frosting for the first time:

Yes - I think he likes it

More photos and items from the weekend coming soon.

Categories:
birthday jsl photos yummy

Giant cupcake making – Take 2

Posted on May 5, 2008 11:16 pm by TheAngelForever

Saturday and Sunday it was time to bake and decorate the second test run of JSL’s first birthday cake. The first attempt can be seen here and viewed being eaten here. From the first baking we learned some valuable things. We knew that we had to put a lot less batter into the pan and bake it for less time.

Thanks to Google I was able to find a great hint. Someone mentioned baking it at 325 (not 350) for 65 minutes (we actually only kept it in 50 minutes). They also said to put 3 1/2 cups of batter into the bottom section and 3 cups into the top. Another pointer was to freeze the cake to make it easier to carve. While out and about we also decided to try something different for decorating. We found a new toy for me to use. Here it is:

Several of the photos of completed giant cupcakes had tops that had used a similar tool. We figured it was worth the small investment since it will be used again.

Given the resources I found we bought two marble cake mixes and whipped frosting and were ready to go. Things were a little more complicated with the marbling. We had to figure how much to leave out of each side to have the right amount left for the little cupcakes (we had a dozen of those this time). It took a bit more time, but we now believe it was worth it and will go quickly for JSL’s birthday. Here is the finished product after it was almost completely decorated Sunday night.

Giant Cupcake Take 2

We ran out of frosting with a bit left to go. Ooops! Thank goodness JL’s co-workers did not seem to care as they devoured the cake rather quickly.

The deal was to send the giant cupcake into work and keep the little ones home. Here are half of the ones we had for all of us to enjoy. They have my favorite frosting from childhood on them that was discontinued for a while. Thank goodness it is back!

Hopefully the cake baking Saturday will go as smoothly. We just need to finalize the topper for the cake that will go along with the giant star sprinkles that I bought especially for JSL’s 1st birthday cake. We think we want something from Sesame Street and have to figure a way to write his name on it. Plus the #1 candle needs to be on top.

Enjoy the sugary goodness of the photos, more will be coming Sunday after the party!

Categories:
birthday food glorious food fun photos yummy

Giant cupcake eating

Posted on May 2, 2008 12:07 pm by TheAngelForever

As a follow up to Giant Cupcake Making – Take 1, I thought it would be fitting to share the photos from our taste testing Wednesday night.

Thanks to where I placed the cake to store it over night it was a pain in the rear to cut, especially the first slice. Check out the mess that resulted in my fun.

Thank goodness most people could care less what their slice looks like. Once they see the pretty cake, it is usually all about the tasting. Well, here is a slice for you. . .

What did you think? Hmmm . . . we need to work on the virtual giant cupcake eating thing I guess!

Here is NHL’s reaction to the cupcake.

Must have more cake

Since everyone was having some of the giant cupcake we could not leave JSL out of it. He had some cake without frosting. He will get ALL of the sugary goodness for the first time at his party on Mother’s Day. Here was his reaction to the cake. . .

First taste of cake

Yes, this is rather tasty

Of course this giant cupcake eating event was done pretty late and both boys were over tired, acting silly, and eventually on sugar highs.

Boys on a sugar high

Just a little slap happy if you ask me!

Thank goodness both of the boys settled soon after for nice sugar filled.

Giant Cupcake Take 2 is scheduled for Sunday so JL can take it to work with him.

Categories:
birthday food glorious food jsl nhl photos yummy

Giant cupcake making – Take 1

Posted on April 30, 2008 11:43 pm by TheAngelForever

As hard as it is for me to believe, my baby is going to be one two weeks from today. His family party will actually be on Mother’s day before his actual birthday. Since the little guy is in love with my cupcake pillow we thought it would be fitting to make a giant cupcake for his big day. I had read about them online many times and finally found one in a local store. With a 50% off coupon for the store I got my cake pan for a great price and decided to test out the pan. All of the reviews said that the pan took some getting used to.

Last night I had everything ready and made the cake for a test run. We decided not to bother baking it since it looked so good like this:

Some of it was eaten in this state, but most was baked into a giant cupcake and 8 extra little cupcakes. Since I used pasteurized egg whites I allowed NHL to have his first cake batter EVER. Yes, you read that right my poor almost five year old son has never had cake batter before. Sad no? Check out his reaction to this big event. Please note where JSL is during this time. He was really trying to get NHL to give him a taste.

Hey big brother. . .

PLEASE share with me!

JSL was not interested in giving up. Watch his progressive movement as NHL moved sides while dodging little hands. Please note the sad little puppy eyes from the little guy. Too bad those do not work on his big brother.

NHL had a blast and loved smiling with lots of cake batter on his face (other photos seen on Wordless Wednesday).

More . . . I need more!

All of the boys were enjoying the time playing before bed while Mommy baked.

Now for the birth of a GIANT cupcake:

A GIANT cupcake is born

Overall the test bake did not go too horribly. It was a very good thing that we did the run through since we learned several things that we will do differently next time that should make it even more successful.

This morning when NHL woke up we showed him the finished cupcake. I do not think he realized how large it was going to be after putting it together. He refused to let me give it away and insisted that we taste test it this evening.